6-year-old Zachary Christie is a first-grader at Downes Elementary School in Newark, Del., He received a 45-day suspension from school. His crime - he took a camping utensil that contained a spoon, fork, bottle opener and knife (commonly called a spork) to school.
School administrators deemed Zachary to be in violation of their zero-tolerance ban on weapons, and he may have to attend the district's reform school.
Zachary's mother, Debbie Christie, is speaking out against the suspension and saying he should not have to face 45 days of reform school as a consequence.
"I got a call from the principal, telling me to come down, that Zach had carried a dangerous weapon into school and was going to be suspended," Christie told "Good Morning America"
School administrators deemed Zachary to be in violation of their zero-tolerance ban on weapons, and he may have to attend the district's reform school.
At the school board meeting supporters came out to rally for change. The board relented and changed its rules. Children in kindergarten and first grade will only be faced with a three to five day suspension.
Melissa Huckaby, 28, accused in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, will likely face the death penalty. She was indicted in July on charges of murdering her daughter's playmate and drugging two other people.
Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa said he will seek the death penalty. He is seeking a speedy trial because younger witnesses he may call to testify will have a harder time remembering specifics about what happened.
Huckaby is charged with kidnapping and murdering Sandra, according to the indictment, along with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument.
A gag order has been placed on all parties involved in the case by Superior Court Judge Linda L. Lofthus, who has also sealed documents in the case, including the autopsy and toxicology reports and documents relating to a defense motion to exhume Sandra's body.
In addition to the murder of Sandra Cantu, Melissa Huckaby faces charges that she attempted to poison two other people: a 7-year-old girl, identified only as "Jane M. Doe" and a Daniel Plowman. She is also charged with child abuse related to the 7-year-old-girl who was "in her care and custody." She is scheduled to appear again in court of Sept. 25.
It is not unusual to hear in the news about victims of brutal attacks. This story however shows the depths of depravity and inhumanity that some people are capable of perpetrating on others. The various acts of torture, abuse and forced sexual activity are in themselves cause to recoil; but the realization that neither the victims nor the attackers had even reached puberty should make each and every one of us pause and say --- WTF!!?!
Two brothers in Britain aged 10 and 12, from the town of Edlington, near Doncaster, pleaded guilty to luring two young boys, aged 9 and 10, into a secluded area of woodland and ravines to see some animals — and then torturing them in an attack so violent it left one of the victims pleading to be left alone to die.
The two young boys were robbed, beaten with sticks and stones, stabbed, burned with cigarettes, forced to eat nettles, had their genitals stomped on, forced to have sex with each other and told to commit suicide as part of their grotesque torture.
Prosecutors charged the two aggressors with attempted murder but, so as to spare the two young victims the further trauma of having to testify in court, accepted lesser charges of robbery, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.
This was not the first time the brothers had been in trouble. They in fact both had a history of violence. The 12-year-old had already appeared in court four times for acts of violence. His younger brother had been reprimanded for a variety of crimes, including assault.
The names of all the boys involved have been withheld due to their ages. However, in my opinion, the crimes that the two brothers committed were so horrible and adult-like that their names and addresses should be made public and published so that the world can be wary of two monsters that walk among us.
Below is a copy the news report widely distributed in the media.
9/3/2009, 9:20 p.m. EDT
RAPHAEL G. SATTER
The Associated Press
(AP) — LONDON - A pair of British brothers pleaded guilty Thursday to luring two young boys into a clearing to see some animals-and then torturing them in an attack so violent it left one of the victims pleading to be left alone to die.
The attackers, aged 10 and 11 at the time, robbed, beat, and stabbed their victims with sticks and bricks. One child, aged 10, had a sink thrown on to his head, while his nephew, aged 9, was forced to eat nettles. At one point the young tormentors tried to force the victims to have sex with each another.
None of the children can be named for legal reasons.
So violent was the attack that prosecutors charged the aggressors with attempted murder-making them some of the youngest ever accused of such a crime in Britain. Media here compared the case to the shocking death of James Bulger, a 2-year-old abducted from a shopping center near Liverpool in 1993 by two 10-year-olds who punched him, beat him with bricks and hit him with an iron bar before leaving his body on a railroad track.
Britain's prime minister weighed in, calling the case "disturbing."
The pair denied attempted murder, but admitted lesser charges of robbery, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and causing a child to engage in sexual activity. Prosecutors at Sheffield Crown Court, in northern England, said they would accept the pleas, in part to spare the young victims the ordeal of a trial.
The April 4 assault came to light when a group of girls in the former English mining town of Edlington found the 9-year-old stumbling around, spattered in blood, with a cut on his arm which went down to the bone. His uncle was later found unconscious, naked from the waist down, with a large cut to the head and bruising around his neck.
Prosecutor Graham Measures told an earlier hearing that the younger boy said he and his uncle went to a secluded area of woodland and ravines with the brothers, who said they wanted to show them some toads and foxes.
It was then that the brothers turned on their victims, stealing a small amount of cash and a cell phone. They then began beating them with sticks and bricks, at one point stabbing the younger child in the arm and then jamming cigarettes into the gaping wound. His genitals were stamped on, and his eyelids were burned with cigarettes. He was forced to smoke, eat nettles and then ordered to commit suicide.
He said he then picked up a stick and put it into his mouth to convince his attackers he was harming himself.
The uncle received even harsher treatment, having a broken sink smashed against his head and a noose rung around his neck. The younger brother told police that his uncle pleaded with the attackers, saying: "Leave me, I can't see. Leave me to die."
The 9-year-old said the attack only ended when the brothers said they had to go to meet their stepfather-although one brother warned his sibling that they should not leave before killing their victims.
The brothers had a history of violence. The 11-year-old, now 12, had already appeared in court four times for acts of violence. His younger brother had been reprimanded for a variety of crimes, including assault.
They lived with five other male siblings and their 36-year-old mother in a run-down home on a different part of town before being moved to a foster home in Edlington about a month before the attack.
This is about two abusive adults: Jesse Pacheco and Jessica Arrowood both 27 years old of Harmony Drive in Greenwood, Ind. But then again it is not really about them, it is about the terror and brutality that they inflicted upon two innocent children: 4-year-old Alea and 5-year-old Raymond Arrowood. Raymond was beaten unconscious almost to the point of death. Alea was choked until turning blue and then violently thrown across a room.
The reason why these kids were so viciously manhandled may surprise you. It was nothing that the kids did themselves. It was because when the adults were angry with each other they took out their frustrations on the kids.
"When (Pacheco) was mad at (Jessica Arrowood), he would beat the one child," Prosecutor Brad Cooper said. "When she was mad at him, she would beat the other."
Jesse Pacheco was charged with battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person younger than 14. He remains in the Johnson County jail with a $60,000 bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Jessica Arrowood was charged with battery resulting in bodily injury, neglect of a dependent and two counts of strangulation. Her bail was set at $15,000. She faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
It all began when Pacheco was at home with Arrowood's four kids while she was at work. He told the kids to go and play at a nearby park so that he could have the house to himself. When 4-year-old Raymond said he didn't want to go, Pacheco became enraged.
He picked the boy up by his throat and began to slam him several times into a carpeted floor without any padding beneath. While he was slamming the boy into the floor, Raymond was crying "Stop, Stop, Stop." Pacheco, however, did not stop until the boy was unconscious. According to authorities, Pacheco left the boy to vomit and urinate on himself for several hours.
When Arrowood returned home she took her unconscious son to Community Hospital South and he was immediately airlifted to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. It was from there that the authorities called the Indiana Department of Child Services and Greenwood police.
Pacheco tried to cover up what he did by telling the other children to lie for him. He told them: "...if the cops come, tell them we were just playing around." The kids did no such thing.
Chief Joe Pitcher of the Greenwood Police Department said the children actually helped crack the case. "They're the ones who said the boyfriend told them to lie and said if he went to jail, they would loose their Xbox and toys," said Pitcher.
Raymond remains in a coma. He suffered numerous injuries, including a blood clot on his brain, bruising to the left ear, a forehead abrasion and a bite mark on his stomach, according to court documents. Doctors performed surgery to relieve swelling on Raymond's brain but those close to his family say the child's prognosis remains grim.
Pacheco has admitted he's responsible for the boy's injuries. "I'm sorry for everything. I was stressed out. Me and Jessica were going through a lot," said Pacheco.
Colleen Hauser was the subject of a massive law enforcement hunt. The FBI, ICE and Interpol were all on the lookout for the 40-year-old mother who had fled with her 13-year-old son, Daniel, who is suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She was trying to avoid a court-ordered chemotherapy treatment for his illness. She believed that he could be cured by alternative means.
Well, the hunt is over and Colleen Hauser has returned home voluntarily with her son. Daniel Hauser was "immediately checked over medically" when he and his mother arrived on a charter flight at 3 a.m., from California, Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffmann said.
;)
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 6:27AM 
